CARLY BOOTH TO ENROL AT

HIGH SCHOOL IN MESA,

ARIZONA NEXT WEEK

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Carly Booth, one of the most exciting young golf talents in Europe, flies to Arizona on Monday to become a student at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, the third largest city in Arizona after Phoenix and Tucson. It has a population of between 400,000 and 500,000.
The 15-year-old will be accompanied by her 22-year-old brother Wallace – a Scotland interntional golfer himself. Wallace will stay until Carly feels settled down. He spent four years at Augusta State University before graduating with a Business Management Masters Degree last May.
“They will be staying with friends of ours in Mesa,” said mother Pauline who went with Carly to Ireland earlier this week to get a visa and other necessary forms.

The American high school autumn or "fall" term starts next week.
It will be Carly’s second spell in America. She was a student at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, Bradenton in Florida from August 2006 to the early spring of 2007.
The golfing siblings’ dad, Wally, who is an Aberdonian and was a Commonwealth Games silver medallist as a wrestler, said:
“Carly needs to be playing golf during the winter months if she wants to continue improving. Even by her own high standards, she has had a phenomenal season but there is nothing for her to play in in Scotland from November through to March and our winter weather is usually all against practising outdoors."
Father Booth built a 12-hole full-length course in fields at his farm in the hills near Comrie and there is no question that the opportunity to step out of their front door and on to a golf course helped both, but Carly in particular, to improve their ability at golf at a terrific rate.
Carly now has +3 of a handicap. She was well into single figures of a rating by the time she was 10 years old. Incidentally, she was also a talented gymnast and swimmer before she was 10!
Wallace junior was a British junior wrestling champion - dad also having built an indoor gymnasium for training at the farm.
"The Americans and the Spaniards have the benefit of being able to play all year and Carly wants to do the same,” said Wally.
"She has her heart set on playing golf professionally but she is not sure if she wants to go through the US college route yet.
"It says a lot for her maturity that she is prepared to leave her family at such a young age to spend her school year in another country."
Carly won't be 16 years old until June 21 next summer which means it would be 2009 at the earliest before a US college would take her -- and they would falling over themselves to recruit her for their golf team if they knew she was available.